Jessica interviews Tu Pham because she won Roshambo.

Describe a moment (location, artwork, medium, time of day) when you were viscerally moved by a piece of artwork.

This may sound odd but I love watching how other people observe art. I don’t even remember what exhibit it was but I was at the Whitney last April, sometime in the afternoon. It was a very dark room with people looking into bits of light in the walls. I don’t remember what we were all looking at but I remember being completely fascinated by how the visitors appeared as they moved through those small spots of light.

What is your favorite Vietnamese dish? Please describe in detail.

That’s a tough one because anyone who knows me would know that I can indefinitely eat Vietnamese food day in day out. That being said I’m a fan of savory and my main comfort food is definitely rice and sticky rice in particular, so, I’d go with Banh It Ram. It’s the texture of the steamed sticky rice dumpling (with shrimp and pork filling) on top of crispy fried glutinous rice. It’s my food crack… can I say that? Anyway, now I’m really hungry.

Describe a lesser known bit of history that moves you, and why?

Exodus stories always move me, particular because it’s part of my history as well. When I was growing up my home was full of Vietnamese immigrants, my very large extended family, my parent’s friends and my dad’s military buddies. Every accounting of departure was unique, heartbreaking, devastating, scared, hopeful and everything in between. There wasn’t one story that was more important than another and what’s crazy was that everyone had one.